How many character Meals?

[ColoradoMom12]

If you're at the Poly, then keep 'Ohana. Lilo and Stitch are cute. The Bon Voyage breakfast is at the Boardwalk and you'll have to go to the International gate and wait for them to open it up. They may not open it up until park opening so you are already behind the hoards of rope droppers who were held back in the plaza in front of the fountain. I'm not sure that it will be a big advantage for you but I've heard it's a nice breakfast!

They're doing the Bon Voyage breakfast before DHS, though, and Garden Grill before Epcot. Thank you for the tip, though; it is very helpful to me! We are doing Bon Voyage before Epcot this summer and I was hopeful we might be able to hurry over to FEA before the crowds...sounds like we will likely have no such luck. Oh well. We do have a FP for it later that day. My DD would be crazy happy if she got to ride it twice in a day, though!

 

[robinb]

They're doing the Bon Voyage breakfast before DHS, though, and Garden Grill before Epcot. Thank you for the tip, though; it is very helpful to me! We are doing Bon Voyage before Epcot this summer and I was hopeful we might be able to hurry over to FEA before the crowds...sounds like we will likely have no such luck. Oh well. We do have a FP for it later that day. My DD would be crazy happy if she got to ride it twice in a day, though!

Ah, you're right. She'll still need to take the boat to DHS which will take a while.

If you're at the IG right when it opens you may get there about the same time as the hoards.

 

[JennyDrake]

Just my 2 cents--you are going to "lose" a lot of parks time with all those character breakfasts. I would have 2 for the entire trip. Kids are WAY over stimulated (adults too!) and WAY overfed and over sugared at WDW, _I_ would tone it all down. Keep in mind also that you are going when it is HOT. Really HOT. Will anyone feel like eating that much? Or would CS in an a/c place but just as welcome???

I would keep Garden Grill for sure.

 

[oceanmarina]

Our kids love the character meals, so I don't think it's too much.

Last trip we did Akershus, Crystal Palace, Tusker House, and 1900 PF. We are doing all of them again and adding Bon Voyage.

I agree, my kids always have a great time at the character meals. We travel every August so it's a nice break from the heat as well. We usually do at least one a day. I would cancel Ohana, it's way too early and our past few times it was a long (40 minute wait just to get seated). I would keep Garden grill over Ohana.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We love character meals, even without kids but especially now with my 2 year old niece. We did quite a few last September and we had a great time. This September we are doing Cape May breakfast, Crystal Palace breakfast, Akershus breakfast, Garden Grill dinner and Hollywood & Vine breakfast. We are early risers at home and when in WDW, we wake up early every morning from our excitement, so we like to book earlier breakfast ADR's for between 8-8:30am, before the parks open, so we aren't missing much time at all from the park we are going to that day. If you are staying at the Poly, keep Ohana breakfast, it is a great character meal.

 

[1st*toright]

We did a lot of character meals on our first trip. I'm really glad we did - we didn't spend time waiting in line to meet characters elsewhere.

Although Lilo and Stitch were cute, and we were staying at the Poly, so it was convenient, I thought our Ohana breakfast was kind of meh compared to the other meals we did.

We really enjoyed Tusker House - thought the food was really good for a buffet, and the characters seemed to have plenty of time to play with the kids.

We did Garden Grill for breakfast and really enjoyed it (and it got us on Soarin'), and Cinderella's Royal Table was better than I expected (glad we did it once, but probably not going to do it again).

The food at Hollywood and Vine was pretty lousy, but it was my little one's favorite character meal. She loves Doc McStuffins and Sophia and they were both super sweet with her.

I enjoyed taking a break and sitting at a TS meal all together so we could focus on each other and talk about what we had seen/what we were doing next. We were there during a really rainy week, so it was extra fun to sit at a nice table next to a window at CRT and see everyone scurrying around with their ponchos on outside. When we were done with lunch, the rain had passed!

For us, it didn't feel like a waste of park time, but time to enjoy the moment. I will say, though, that any breakfasts we did were PPO or on our non-park day, so we weren't wasting rope drop hours at breakfast

 

[NikolaA]

We did 3 last year on a 3-day park trip and feel like we could have sneaked in another one. Our girls were just about 3 for that trip and I feel they have more fun with the characters than the rides. I guess it depends on what works for your family. We did Tusker House lunch at AK day 1, Hollywood & Vine breakfast at HS day 2, Crystal Palace breakfast at MK day 3 (plus Tiana & Naveen's Ice Cream Party). We're going to try 4 + the Ice Cream Party for a 4-day trip in Feb.

 

[Felicis]

I think for us it came down to characters and places. SO we are doing a CRT dinner (got to eat in the castle), BOG dinner (DD wants to meet the beast), Bon Voyage (on a non park day, when we will explore Boardwalk and Springs), and Crystal Palace (because Tigger!) We cancelled our Akershus as we have enough Princess stuff going on, and I don't think we need a Mickey as there are quite a few options for meeting him across the parks. We have 7 park days, and 2 non.